The Faculty of Engineering building facilities are expected to house three distinct academic departments (i.e. the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, the Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering), the central administration of the Faculty and communal functions.

The basic idea of the project, winning the first prize, proposes the organization of all the three departments into a single system of wings facing north and south with 6 main levels of functions, featuring from the lowest to the highest, research laboratories, graduate students’ offices & facilities, workshops & teaching rooms, reception areas & administrative facilities and teaching staff offices & facilities. The offices of the academic personnel are placed above the main level of the pedestrian traffic of the complex, producing three identifiable “floating” volumes, "trademarks" of each department.

An essential ingredient of the proposal is the central public space. This space follows the structural system of the ‘department wings’ with which it is linked, as it houses all the main public uses along with uses that do not belong to the Departments, like the Central Administration which is located on its southern side. The dynamic of this central public space reflects the richness of public relations. A space though attached to the rigid rectilinear structure of the Departments that proposes a spatial experience of different speeds, dynamics and concentrations, highlighting the feeling of event. 

The geometry of the central zone produces a space, which through its foldings and voids allows the communication between levels and renders this public space to a ‘platform of human contact and information exchange’. Additionally, the wedge of green that invades the space, cutting across several levels, counterbalances the relationship between artificial and natural environment. 

A basic characteristic of this ‘central public space’ is that it is enveloped, by a singular skin which naturally regulates the microclimate of the zone. We call this element “Climo”, a word generated from the term climatic modifier. This unifying skin is comprised of a series of parallel louvers with a height of around 2 meters, a variety of angles and it is set at a height of around 12 meters from the floor of the central public space.   This louvered system generates a series of shading conditions, sometimes absolute, more often fragmented and partial while also enables hot air to escape the zone.

The materials used various from reinforced concrete, clear - white marble, glass, wood, aluminium to stainless steel etc. The entire complex follows a single system (grid) measuring approximately 10 x 10 m, apart from the wings of offices which are self-supporting steel structures.

The intention of the architects was to designate the double character of the university: the strict organization and classification of knowledge on the one half and the freedom in the exchange of ideas and in human relations on the other.  At the same time, they tried to reveal and promote the relationship between the two, by enriching the architectural vocabulary in order to produce new spatial proposals at all levels of design and especially concerning those ‘hybrid’ elements which play a connective role in the whole complex.

Exhibitions

1. Exhibition of the Competition, University of Cyprus, Nicosia 2010

Publications

1. Architects + Mechanics, No 90, March 2011, pp. 8-9

2. Ellinikes Kataskeues, No 156, April 2011, pp. 58-60

3. KTIRIO, No 3, April 2011, p. 27

4. KTIRIO ARCHITECTURE + DESIGN, No 7, August 2011, pp. 50-53